Chiefs Grasp At Straws Spokane Revitalized In Series; No Hope Becomes Faint Hope

History beckons.

Down three games to one in the West Division quarterfinals to the Portland Winter Hawks, the Spokane Chiefs pick up the chase of a Western Hockey League first tonight at the Arena.

The Chiefs and the Winter Hawks play Game 5 of the Western Hockey League quarterfinals at 7. Tickets in all price ranges were available this morning.

The Chiefs are trying to be the first to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win a WHL playoff series.

Portland likewise is one win away from a WHL first a No. 6 knocking off a No. 1.

The top seed out of the WHL West, the Chiefs found themselves in a 3-0 hole after sixth-seeded Portland pulled off a pair of upsets in Spokane, then followed with a Tuesday night win in the Rose Garden, 6-4.

The Chiefs salvaged a split on the road Wednesday night, when they were at their 50-win, regular-season division championship form.

“I just hope this (the 5-3 win) purges this little thing of playing all pressured up,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “Let’s just play with this team. For the first time in this series I saw things that represented the Chiefs. The forecheck. We were on them quite a bit. It was the first time in the series I saw who their defensemen were.

“I’d never seen them turned around so I could read the names on their backs, because until (Wednesday night) we were rarely in their zone.”

The task now, said goaltender David Lemanowicz - who played his best game of the series in the Spokane win - is to realize that winning four straight is not that much of a reach for a team that won 50 in the regular season.

The Winter Hawks are doing nothing different in the playoffs, Lemanowicz added, but working harder.

“They’ve had good special-teams play, but they had that all year. They’ve stepped up their game one level,” said Lemanowicz. “We got outworked the first two games and I wasn’t at my best in the third game.”

Through all three, smallish Portland goaltender Brent Belecki - listed at 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds - got in the way of just about everything the Chiefs threw on net.

Belecki’s performance - and that of Richard Zednik, the skilled right wing who leads this series in scoring with seven goals and three assists - is the talk of the series.

Although not as productive so far as Zednik, another established WHL star is making his presence felt. Spokane’s Jason Podollan has three goals and four assists in four games.

In Tuesday night’s loss, Babcock also received great play from rookie forward Derek Schutz. Babcock said at the time that as “awesome” as Schutz has played in the postseason, the veterans who carried the club to its first regular-season division championship would have to come through to turn this series around.

Podollan, Darren Sinclair, Hugh Hamilton, Sean Gillam, Jan Hrdina, Dmitri Leonov, Jay Bertsch and Trent Whitfield responded with points on Wednesday night.

Portland coach Brent Peterson said the highest rung on the ladder is always the toughest reach for the low seed.

“When No. 6 plays No. 1,” Peterson said, “No. 4 (win No. 4) is always the hardest.”

, DataTimes